Archbishop Tomasi: diverting funds for abortion and contraception "totally unacceptable"

Vatican Radio reports that;

The Holy See has condemned as totally unacceptable any attempts to divert funding for genuine health care in favour of programmes that provide or facilitate contraceptives and abortion. The Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Specialized Agencies in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi made the remark yesterday in a statement he delivered to the 18th Session of the Human Rights Council. Archbishop Tomasi’s statement outlined the position of the Holy See regarding the need for a human rights-based approach to eliminate preventable maternal mortality. The Permanent Observer noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) has demonstrated that women in Africa die primarily from five major causes: hypertensive diseases, obstructed labour, haemorrhage, sepsis and infection, and HIV-related diseases.

He went on to say that the interventions known to address such medical crises include training and employment of skilled birth attendants, provision of antibiotics and uterotonic medications, and improvement of blood banking. He said the Delegation of the Holy See finds totally unacceptable any attempts to divert much-needed financial resources from those effective and life-saving interventions to increased programmes of contraception and abortion, which aim at limiting procreation of new life or at destroying the life of a child. Archbishop Tomasi concluded saying, “the Holy See Delegation expresses the firm hope that the international community will succeed in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality by promoting effective interventions that are based on deep and abiding values as well as on scientific and medical knowledge and that are respectful of the sacredness of life from conception to natural death"